


Authentically Different

by RakishRebel



Category: South Park
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Crushes, F/M, First Crush, High School, One Shot, POV Female Character, Platonic Romance, Secret Crush, Teen Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-23
Updated: 2016-04-23
Packaged: 2018-06-03 23:28:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6631444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RakishRebel/pseuds/RakishRebel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>''He was authentically different, and he trademarked it too. He walked around as if he was his own special brand, but no one was cool enough to wear it. ''</p>
<p>Craig Tucker, being his emotionless self, gets sent to the Princpal's office once again, only this time accompanied by you, the reader. Craig finally drops his aloof fascade and the both of you share a secret with one another.</p>
<p>-One shot female!reader x Craig with fluffy ending-</p>
            </blockquote>





	Authentically Different

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think of this in the comment section! Even a small message makes my day! :)

Authentically different

He was authentically different, and he trademarked it too. He walked around as if he was his own special brand, but no one was cool enough to wear it. He was also aloof and careless, which he would also show off by remaining a deadpan expression at times other people’s jaws dropped so low that they almost hit the floor. Yet the teenage boy seemed completely unaware of others views of him. His mind would drift off during every gossipy conversation and his grey eyes rarely darted around the school long enough to spot any of the girls chuckling and squealing in high-pitched voices whenever he passed by. He was easily distinguishable from every other person in every crowd imaginable. He was something offbeat. He was refreshingly different. He was Craig Tucker.  
He was completely oblivious to your entire existence.  
It was not as if Craig couldn’t see you (well technically spoken, sometimes he couldn’t due to his massive height), but he never noticed you. ‘’Casually’’ asking him questions about the history test next week or about other upcoming events didn’t seem like anything unusual to him. Whereas you obviously tried to catch his attention, he didn’t seem to understand that at all. Maybe Craig just thought you were incredibly ditsy. Trying to get the table next to his in class proved to be also completely futile, for Craig was constantly surrounded by three dense individuals, who went by the names of Clyde, Tweek and Token, constantly buzzing around him as if Craig was a shimmering lightbulb that attracted mosquitos mistaking his light for that of the sun.  
‘’(Y/N), can I borrow your pencil?’’  
You slightly jumped at the random voice interrupting your train of thoughts. You clumsily opened the zipper of your pencil case and handed one of your pencils to the hand in front of you. It was only at the hearing of a small ‘’thanks’’ that you saw the person to whom belonged the hand.  
There he was, the one and only Craig Tucker, giving you a small smile as he pulled his chullo hat farther over his messy, black hair up to the point the blue fabric almost covered up his grey eyes too. You wanted to return his smile with a genuine of your own, but you were sure it must look really awkward.  
‘’N-No problem,’’ you replied, scratching your neck as you said it. Play it cool, you thought. Was the school finally able to afford to turn up the heat radiator, or was something else the cause of your glowing cheeks and sweaty hand palms? Was this the right time to question why Craig had drifted apart from his usual group of friends, who were at the very back of the classroom throwing poorly folded paper airplanes at each other, and instead decided to sit down on the empty table next to yours? Were you so absent-minded you hadn’t you noticed before?  
Craig chuckled softly and he pointed with his index finger towards the right front corner of the room, where Stan Marsh was heavily engaged in a passionate make out session with Wendy Testaburger, a girl with whom he had an off-on relationship going on. You were unsure why he would point out that happening to you until he spoke again.  
‘’Five bucks they’ll choke on each other’s spit between now and two minutes.’’  
You couldn’t help but laugh at his witty comment and Craig himself started grinning too. God, that smile was more contagious than all STD’s combined. Even with two rows of shiny metal braces, Craig showed a very infectious and radiant smile.  
‘’Yeah, totally,’’ you agreed with the boy. ‘’Unless they break up in two seconds,’’ you said, referring to the huge inconsistency of their relationship. ‘’They’re more instable than an exploding volcano.’’  
‘’Or a supernova,’’ Craig joined in with your joke.  
‘’Or an earthquake,’’ you added.  
‘’Or this pencil.’’ Craig put the pencil you had lent him on his upper lip and puckered up his lips in a failed attempt to balance the pencil. The pencil fell on the wooden surface of Craig’s desk once Mr. Garrison entered the classroom and slammed the door shut with a loud WHAM! You exclaimed a short yell at the sudden sound too.  
‘’Okay, listen up you little pieces of shit! I’m super pissed off right now, so whoever is bothering me will go directly to the principal’s office! Understood?’’  
The class nodded in agreement and a few made humming sounds, although most of the students were far too daunted to even make the slightest sound or movement. Mr. Garrison marched across the class room and pulled hard on Wendy’s hair when passing her by. ‘’And Wendy, stop eating your boyfriend’s face! This is a classroom, not a fucking strip club if you will!’’  
You gulped and then eyed Craig without turning your head away from your enraged teacher, who was hastily scribbling something down on the blackboard with such fierce movements that the little crayon broke under the power of his muscles. Craig appeared neither shocked nor indignant at the sight of Mr. Garrison’s face turning red from anger – Craig didn’t even look slightly bemused. Instead, he had wiped off signs of emotions off his face and gave his teachers a deadpan expression.  
‘’Now you’ll all make these exercises,’’ Mr. Garrison pointed at his writing on the blackboard, ‘’and you will all shut the Hell up! Am I clear to you?’’  
Again some awkward, hesitant nodding from the class, to which the teacher raised his voice even louder. ‘’I SAID AM I CLEAR YOU LITTLE FAGGOTS?!’’  
‘’Y-Yes, Mr. Garrison!’’ Kyle brought out.  
‘’Broflovksi, principal’s office NOW!’’  
‘’What?! Why?!’’ Kyle replied with a nervous undertone in his voice that was very easily detectable. Of course Kyle would be worried about getting sent to the principal’s office, for Kyle had to hold up a certain reputation, by all means the reputation of a bright and studious boy that wouldn’t even consider misbehaving for a split second.  
‘’You pissed me off! Now go!’’ Mr. Garrison pointed his finger straight at the door, signing Kyle’d better be going soon.  
‘’Bu-!’’ Kyle sputtered.  
‘’NOW!’’  
Realising Kyle had no other choice but to leave the classroom, he lousily stood up from his chair with a defeated look on his face that you saw turning into anger as Kyle opened the door and left the room. He had grinded his teeth together and you knew that meant trouble – had Mr. Garrison forgotten Kyle’s father was the type of lawyer to sue someone for ‘’improperly treating’’ his son?  
Mr. Garrison sat down on the teacher’s chair, proceeded to put his feet on the matching desk and massaged his temples with the tips of his fingers. His face had obtained an even redder tint and it scared you to death. You didn’t want to end up having the same faith as Kyle, thus you obeyed your teacher’s orders and opened your maths book at page 27. You wanted to give exercise 5 a go, but that was until you laid your eyes on the little ball of paper atop of your text book. Upon closer look, it had some writing on it, which you were able to read once your hands had unfolded the piece of paper.

‘’What’s more unstable: Wendy and Stan or that throbbing vein on Garrison’s forehead?’’

You looked to your right as unnoticeable as possible and indeed, the sloppy handwriting belonged to Craig, who gave you a playful smile while still bending over his table.  
You hesitated for a split second, but then you circled the latter option on the piece of paper before passing it back to Craig. A little later, you received the same piece of paper back from him, with some additional writing underneath the first message.

‘’Sounds like a bet we have here. Loser buys a pizza for the winner?’’

You wanted to write ‘’deal’’ underneath it if it wasn’t for an obnoxious voice yelling your name.  
‘’(Y/N)! Are you passing notes to Craig?!’’  
You gulped as you searched hopelessly for the answer. What would be the smartest thing to say: say the truth and get sent to Principal Victoria, or tell a lie that would provoke and endless discussion?  
‘’Y-Yes, Mr. G-Gar-…’’ you softly answered him.  
‘’No, she wasn’t – I was the one who gave her the notes, not the other way around.’’ Craig’s nasal and monotonous voice cut through your words the way a sharp knife cut through a piece of paper: hard, quickly and effectively, not to mention unnecessarily drastic.  
‘’I don’t give a crap! Get your asses to Principal Victoria already!’’  
Craig reluctantly yet fiercely shoved back his chair, causing the legs of the chair to make a high-pitched squeak as they thrusted against the floor. Knowing arguing with your teachers would be worthless, you followed Craig’s example, but chose to not catch anyone’s attention by making loud noises. You walked behind Craig on your way out of the classroom. When Craig put his hand on the doorknob, he used his other hand to raise his middle finger at his teacher.  
‘’Oi! Stop that, Tucker!’’  
Craig didn’t listen, held the door open for you and then continued to follow the route that led to the Principal’s office. He set a brisk pace and you had to take bigger steps to keep up with him.  
‘’Are you okay?’’ you asked Craig. He simply shrugged and put his hands in the pockets of his jeans, but did stop to enable you to approach him farther.  
‘’It’s okay, I’m used to this crap. I just wished I didn’t have to be. Don’t you think Garrison is being a dick?’’  
‘’Uh yeah, I guess,’’ you answered him. ‘’But I thought you didn’t care about that.’’  
‘’I don’t mind him treating me unfairly, but you didn’t do anything wrong. I passed you that note, so I should take the blame. Sorry for getting you in trouble.’’  
Craig scuffed his feet and you decided to walk a bit slower in order to stay by his side. Never had you seen Craig looking, his eyes fixated on his black boots and his mouth forming a smile turned upside down.  
‘’That’s okay,’’ you replied to him. ‘’I wasn’t feeling like attending class anyways.’’  
Craig let out a short scoff before he looked up to you. ‘’Thanks for forgiving me.’’  
As you and Craig almost reached Principal Victoria’s office, where Kyle was presumably wangling the principal to not get any punishment, you couldn’t take it anymore. You grabbed Craig by the shoulder, signing he should stop. He did as you obligated but gave you a weird look by cocking his eyebrow at you. Again a facial expression you weren’t used to seeing from Craig. It was as if you saw him for the first time.  
‘’(Y/N), what are you doing?’’ he asked you in his usual, laid-back manner.  
‘’I… I just need to ask you something real quick,’’ you explained yourself. ‘’Am I… boring? Like, you never talk to me and I just wanted to know why. I get it if you find me stupid or whatever, just spill the beans.’’  
Craig looked at you with slightly widened eyes, presumably trying to remain his useless inscrutable face, but instead he looked frozen, the muscles in his shoulders stiffing and his eyes showing a shocked look in them.  
‘’B-Boring? No, not at all.’’ His voice cracked a little, but soon went back to a low tone.  
‘’Then why don’t you ever talk to me? Just be honest with me here. I won’t get mad.’’  
‘’I… I… Listen, we need to the office already.’’  
Craig firmly grabbed your wrist and dragged you towards to bench in front of the office. You sat yourself down and so did Craig, only as far away from you as the length of the bench allowed him to.  
‘’Is there something you’re not telling me?’’ you queried, tilting your head at the noirette, who looked absorbed in his own mind, drifting off to a daydream you had no access to.  
‘’It’s nothing. It’s just that you’re cooler than me, so I don’t know how to talk to you.’’ His rambling was so fast you could barely comprehend what he was saying, but you slowly began to process his words. Craig Tucker, the one whom you found authentically different, cool, aloof and mysterious, admitted he was unsure how to talk to you because he felt you were cooler than him.  
You didn’t know how to respond to his words, which were almost out-pouring for someone like Craig, but you scooted to Craig across the bench and laid your elbows on your lap, mimicking Craig’s posture.  
The boy didn’t look up from the ground and started pulling on the strings of his chullo hat, attempting (in vain) to hide his red-tinted cheeks behind the piece of wool. You thought he looked incredibly, undeniably cute, with his face all flustered at his teeth biting on his bottom lip as he occasionally gave you quick glances when he thought you wouldn’t be looking. He rubbed his feet together, creating a squeaky noise, as you were both were unsure to say.  
Aside from the sound of Craig’s sneakers, you could hear your own breath, the sound of Principal Victoria’s voice yelling from the other side of the wall and your heart that started pounding uncontrollably. It was such a torture that you wondered whether it was a wild animal that tried to escape from the cage that your ribs formed.  
You felt the obligation to say something, anything, to break the awkward silence between you, but perhaps words weren’t the tool you needed to use. You grabbed the strings of Craig’s hat and pulled them towards you as you brought your face closer to Craig’s. Soon you felt Craig’s hot and soft skin rubbing against your own as you brushed the boy’s lips. Craig’s mouth tasted like peanut butter sandwiches, but you didn’t mind at all – that particular taste was Craig’s taste after all, not a disgusting flavour. You were a bit hesitant about your movements, but you became more confident once Craig responded to your kiss with his lips kissing yours and his hands finding your head, playing with the (LONG/SHORT) locks of soft hair.  
Eventually, you two drifted apart, but still locked eyes on one another. Craig’s grey eyes showed nothing but euphoria and his lips formed a wide smirk from satisfaction.  
‘’You are cooler than me,’’ you whispered. ‘’You’re like, authentically different.’’  
Craig’s eyes widened once again, but not as far as Kyle’s eyes did once the boy stepped outside of the Principal’s office. ‘’Dude…’’ he whispered to himself before he let out a low whistle tone. You couldn’t help but laugh at his dropped jaw, which he covered up with his hand, and neither could Craig. God, how you loved that loud, whole-hearted laugh of your potentially new boyfriend, who was a one of a kind, truly authentically different person.


End file.
